At Greg's place today, I reacted to the NYT FDA story about WH political interference in policy matters. Important point that I didn't emphasize there: we would expect the FDA to leak that sort of accusation when there are differences over policy, so take that into consideration when evaluating the story. Main point: political interference from the WH isn't necessarily a bad thing, but interference in order to avoid attacks from the Republican partisan press is not very bright. It goes, by the way, with silly comments today from RNC chair Reince Priebus, who says that Congress's approval ratings would improve if Nancy Pelosi resigned. Silly because, of course, whoever replaced Pelosi would then become a GOP target, and nothing would change (and of course it's sort of unlikely that Congress's approval ratings dipped after the 2010 election because of Pelosi, but that's another story).
Meanwhile, at Post Partisan I looked at the question of whether Rick Santorum will drop out after today's primaries.
Leaving aside Santorum's personal stake in the outcome, does his staying in the race effectively keep Romney from shifting to the center? Or, if Romney tries to shift to the center while Santorum is still in the race, does that boost Santorum's chances in later primaries (not necessarily enough to win the nomination, but enough to muddle Romney's win)? Or are the prospects of a Romney "reset" pretty much precluded by now?
ReplyDeleteI think the both the White House and the FDA need to find the common middle here. The FDA does have a duty to regulate, the White House staff has a job to make sure the administration is operating optimally. The White House needs to let the FDA do it's job, but the FDA needs to understand that managing the politics is going to be crucial to it's future ability to do its job. If a regulation becomes a real political football, the FDA then has a bullseye on it's back in Congress and it becomes harder for it to put future regulations in place.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your piece over at Plum Line about the adminstration not letting right-wing radio set the narrative, though. this is one of those tough tightropes to walk.